Ane
Ane are the majority population in the Ane Confederation. Ane account for 26 billion of the population. Physiology Ane are a quadrupedal, Handicapped race. That is they have no manipulative members such as hands or tentacles. They stand an average of 1.2 meters at the shoulder and weigh an average of 160 kilograms. In a normal posture they will look an average height man in the eyes. Body shape resembles a half morph between an impala and a greyhound with cloven hooves, a deep chest, and flat belly. The have a short thickly furred tail similar to a white-tailed deer. They have counter-curved lyrate horns an average of 0.9 meters in length. Ane eyes are always a solid blue in color showing no iris or pupil. The exact shade will vary among individuals and the current lighting conditions. This "solid eye" is a false color caused by the cornea reflecting blue and ultraviolet light away from their eyes. In lighting that has no blue in it Ane have more normal looking eyes in a deep brown shade. Under intense ultraviolet conditions (black light) their eyes will glow. Ane call this a "hard eye". Those races familiar with the basic body form of the Ane find the eye to be the most alien thing about how they look. Ane are completely furred. Main body color can be either of the black phase or the more common tan phase. Color can vary in intensity from a deep mahogany red, to a sandy tan, or from a charcoal gray to smoke. The underbelly is white in all cases. White markings extend from the throat, to under the tail, and go part way down the legs on the inside. Between the main body color and the white belly, extending from the front legs to the back is a black flank band. It will vary in width from 76mm to 156mm. Their fur is soft to the touch and they have no undercoat. Ane do not handle cold conditions well, and do not adapt to cold conditions. Their skin is a blue-black color that is highly resistant to radiation in the ultraviolet range. They do not sunburn. All mucus membranes are a bright blue. This would include the tongue, around the eyes, genitals, and the inside of their ears. Any place a human shows pink, skin pigment aside, Ane show bright blue. In the case of Ane however this is pigment. They are red-blooded and the pigment only goes in so far. The back of their throats for example is the color you expect from a red-blooded being. Gender Differences Males and females are of the same size. Males possess scent glands on the face that produce a waxy substance. This has a mild musky scent to humans. This area of the face is marked by an elongated teardrop shaped black mask under their eyes. The widest part is near the eye, and will sometimes circle it. While both sexes have horns females will usually have smaller horns than a similar sized male. Females have four mammary glands between the hind legs. In a maiden female they will look more like dark spots on a lightly haired area of the abdomen. The udder is more pronounced in females that have had children. Males have a sheath in the expected place, but it is near flush with the belly, testicles are internal. The surest method of sexing an Ane without getting very personal, or asking, is to look at their face. Immune System Ane are highly disease resistant. Their biofeedback system is extensive and reactive. Those with high ability in this are healers.. Given tincture of time an Ane can usual recover from any disease or poisoning. The down side to this amazing ability to self heal is that most invasive medicine, and that includes drugs, has a negative impact on the Ane's system. What to a Human is a beneficial drug to the Ane is a toxin to be isolated and flushed from the body. Very few drugs will do as advertised on Ane. Doctors are advised to avoid drugs or even such devices as protoplasers. Administer first aid, call an Ane healer. Ane Psionics The identifying aspect of the Ane is their psionic abilities. Without these they would be cute antelopes. Telepathy Ane are the second most powerful telepaths in the Federation today. They individually rate between 85 and 95 on the Kraith Scale of psionic ability. Telepathy is more than the mere conveyance of language. Indeed, language has nothing to do with it. Ane think in terms of concept not symbols. You think in terms of symbols, so that is what you "hear". Sight, sound, smell and more are all part of the telepathic experience. The sub-vocal communication that non-psionics "hear" as the Ane voice is compared to the experience of full telepathic contact as to watching a roller coaster ride on a black & white TV with the sound off, is to the actual ride. Telepathy is the primary method by which Ane communicate. Ane can attack with telepathic abilities, but their ethics abhor such assaults. Ane will only attack with telepathy if first so attacked. They do respect mental privacy, and will not form any kind of link unless invited to do so. Teleportation Ane are one of the few known species that can teleport. Normal range is anything within 100,000 kilometers. The main limitation is weight, not distance. With contact to the All they can teleport between star systems. Ane teleportation does not deal with either traveling the distance, or folding space. Rather it is a dimensional shift into the 11th dimension and back into 4D space. Distance is obliterated. The amount of energy required to move across the room is no different than that required to move across the galaxy. It is how much you take with you that matters. The limit is expressed as a percentage of the teleporting Ane's mass. Heavier Ane can teleport greater masses. The limitation is 200% of the teleporter's mass above their own mass. The second limitation is that you cannot go where no one has been. A clear image of the destination is required. An interstellar jump requires an anchor at each end, hence the need for a connection to the All. Healing About 10% of the female Ane and 1% of the males are capable of manipulating their biofeedback gift to heal others. These are the Healers. They can aid your body, even if you are not an Ane, to heal itself to an extraordinary degree. The better Healers can aid your body to cure itself of everything from the common cold to cancer. At the extreme end of ability they can help you regenerate limbs. The majority of the physical work is done by the patient. Those under treatment for more extensive healing, including trauma, will sleep a lot and eat like two longshoremen. Teachers About 10% of the males, and 1% of the females in the Ane population have the "teacher" ability. Most Ane can split their attention several directions, holding 2-5 conversations at once. Teachers can do this for 10 to 25 people at once. Those so skilled and trained are in great demand for those subjects that are purely mental in nature. Psionic learning can be undertaken by non-psionics at the rate of an hour a day. By telepaths for up to six hours a day. In that time you can learn at an accelerated rate. An average college course that has no lab requirement and no physical training, such as language, can be taught in two weeks at an hour a day. For most telepaths this is one on one training. Ane teachers can handle classes. A highly skilled teacher can name their own price at any college or business in the Federation. Telekinesis: This ability is mentioned only because the Ane do not have it. They don't even have a little bit. None, nada, zip. Ane Psychology Ane have a three lobed brain about the size of the human brain, but with five times the folding. Mentation is at least the equal of any species measured, on an individual basis. The unusual nature of Ane psychology comes from the nature of this three lobed brain. The right and left lobes of the Ane brain perform functions normally associated with most sentient beings. The third, or High Lobe is different altogether. Currently accepted medical practice credits the high lobe with the psi-active functions of the Ane. Under experimental and empirical circumstances it has been noted that Ane do not panic. The High Lobe appears to hold some check over emotional response. The high lobe calmly observes everything even under the most extreme condition or distress. This is not to say they do not panic, quake in fear, scream like girls, or cry in pain. They do. It is only that later they have a full recall as to why they panicked, feared, screamed, or cried and what they did about it. Some physiologists have equated to having a calm little guy in your head taking notes on your life and your reactions to it. Some Human psychologists have stated that the entire race acts as if they had a dissociative disorder. This is why. Ane have a full recall of events or of personal injury that Humans would not recall at all. A Human badly frightened or severely injured might remain awake, but not lucid. As long as the Ane is awake, they are lucid. Ane do not suffer from insanity with anywhere near the frequency of Humans. Their resistance to mentally traumatizing circumstances is remarkable. It has been noted however that once they do snap, they seldom recover. Death is the usual result of any clinical insanity. Ane will occasionally speak of the Icon and Aspect. These are important concepts to understanding Ane psychology. The Icon is the name of an Ane. A telepathic identifier that incorporates the full "I" or how the Ane in question sees themselves. Their own view of who they are. Understanding the Icon tells you a great deal about the person you are dealing with. Their hearts are on their sleeves so to speak. The meaningless names that non-telepaths hear, Farlaban, Sellan, and so forth are only there for those that cannot grasp the Icon. The Aspect is the Ane soul. Functionally similar to the Vulcan Katra. The Ane hold similar beliefs in the indestructibility of the person. Death is not the end, only the end of a phase. Living Ane can elevate their Aspect into the All and this is considered full participation in the Ane mental culture. Ane exhibit two major personality types; Typical or introverted, and explorative or extroverted. Introverted types have received the least study and scholarly knowledge. They stay where they were born, and from outward appearances do nothing but eat, play, and breed. What mental activity that is going on has been impossible to study. The only thing to go on is what the Ane themselves will say. The Ane speak constantly of the All, the combined mental essence of the entire race and the memories of every Ane that has lived. They say that this All is all the mental stimulation that any Ane needs. The introverts are satisfied with that contact and activity. The Extroverts, about 10% of the population at best, are not satisfied with needs, they have wants. They go out among other species to learn their ways and customs, acquire knowledge of professions they could never practice, and stick those cute black noses into everything they politely can. They are not afraid to admit ignorance, and are willing students of anything you will teach them. Extroverts are the users of the technology. As the industry of the Extroverts seems to serve the needs of the All, most resources go to support their wants. Common to all Ane is a sense of humor. A low sense of humor. The delight in getting you, or anyone else, to loose your cool, to blow your savoir-faire. Indeed the more self important and pretentious the person the harder they work on this. It is noted and true that this tendency can and does get in the way of practicing diplomacy and politics. Ane simply do not get the point of flattery. The other factor of Ane politics is bluntness. Tact is a tool they seldom, if ever, use. Anyone that prevaricates, beats around the bush or otherwise attempts to disguise the true nature of their position or desires will have that position or desire stated back to them in blunt forthright language that is impossible to deny and still get what you want. This does not make them friends with those that like the political game. The last factor is the one the least people know about and more need to. “You didn't ask.” The Ane are effectively a living mass storage device. They love to answer your questions, if they can. However they are slow to volunteer information. Indeed until you ask they might not even know they know. Information in the All is not as accessible as the memory of you best friend's name for example. To get an output, you need to supply an input. And if they don't like you they can be very difficult and exacting as to the questions required to get the right response. The will step back and happily watch you flounder in your assumptions until it kills you, because, you didn't ask. Conversely if an Ane likes you they are open and direct about information they have, but will still wait for that input. They are not trying to be difficult, but like your computer hard drive they don't know what you need until you ask. Senses Vision In spite of the unusual color of their eyes, a product of their native environment, Ane vision has the same over all color range as humans. They cannot see into the deep purples, those colors are actually blocked from entering their eyes. They can see into the infrared. They have the same range of vision as Humans, but red-shifted. Unlike most herbivores Ane can focus both eyes forward for binocular vision. They can also use them independently to the sides and have 270 degree vision. They are all farsighted however. They have a hard time focusing on something under the end of their rather long muzzles. Ane that do a great deal of reading will either have a forcefield lens perched on their muzzles, or use large fonts. Hearing Ane hear a similar range of sounds as Humans, but are more sensitive to lower volumes. Their large steerable ears mean they can locate the source of faint sounds easily. As a result of those ears they have the habit of not facing the person that is speaking to them, if doing so would require moving. The ears will come around and focus on you. Those that deal with Ane on a daily basis have learned that one eye and the ears does mean their full attention. Scent Ane also have a keen olfactory sense. While not a good as Terran dogs by a long shot it is much better than Humans. Scent plays an important role in Ane culture. Touch Touch is likely the most important of the Ane senses. They are known as a sensuous race. They are a people with a preferred personal space that starts just under their skin. They have greeting rituals that come just short of the exchange of body fluids. Aura The sense that Ane possess that most races do not is the psychic sense. They can sense the mental environment about them. Nearly every being puts off some manner of mental noise. Emotions are written on the body in their scent and on the psychic aura around a given being. Ane quickly detect lies. There are certain people they avoid, for no reason that anyone else can see. To Ane that person has an aura they find unpleasant. Mind you this is not universal. The person one Ane avoids another might approach with interest. Diet Ane are ruminate herbivores. They can digest the roughest of vegetable matter including cellulose. Their digestion is low volume, high yield, with a gut similar to Earth bovines. They chew cud. They also like fruits in small amounts. If Ane covet anything they covet radishes. They will eat these over the sweetest of fruits. They can tolerate milk even in adulthood. Cheese and ice cream are treats they enjoy as well. Unless they are working hard Ane avoid grains. All other animal proteins are avoided. While the occasional insect that gets into the grass is not seriously objected to, they cannot tolerate meat in any amount, and could not survive on it. Growth and Aging Ane are born after an eleven standard month gestation. They hit the ground lucid and are walking within an hour. In fact they are lucid two months before their birth, asking Mom and Dad all sorts of questions and getting ready for the big day. Unlike bipedal Humanoids Ane have the usual easy birth of quadrupeds. Childhood lasts 3 El Nanth years or 9.6 standard years. Education starts at birth with The Gift. This is a mental download of the basic racial history from the parent's viewpoint. The newborn is not expected to understand this, but it will come to them gradually as they grow up. A young Ane is a walking question factory. The racial memory has not kicked in yet, and the young mind craves answers about everything. The young are also unmannerly about telepathic contact. Very young Ane can be dangerous to those races that are psionically sensitive. Parental control is necessary at this stage of life. Any sentient within range will be mercilessly bombarded with questions at a furious rate. As fast as one is answered a second will be asked. There is none of the annoying "why?" practiced by Human children, mainly to annoy adults. All questions are of substance, but unless you know how to shut them off, it just keeps coming. The young Ane does not become aware of racial memory for six standard years. This allows the individual to establish a personality free from influences of the past. They are also insufferably cute. After six standard years the young Ane will have reached full height, but have a good deal of filling out to do. At this point the racial memories trickle into awareness. The young have their first experiences with the All, and Ane culture in the larger sense. Full contact with the All is not allowed until a child is 8 to 9 standard years of age. It is desirable that they form their own personality without being over printed by the All. General education is handled in family. There is no "educational system" for Ane on Ane worlds. Two reactions are common with the child gets contact with the All. The "teen" becomes insufferable, filled with knowledge, they do think they "know everything". Fortunately, this stage passes. It is a good thing too, or a great many of them would be bludgeoned to death (they are harder than Hell to strangle). The second reaction is awe at the scope and depth of what is available. It is then dived into and they might not come up for air for a good long time. Parental prompting may be required to get them to kick back and go run for a while, eat, etc. This would be the Ane equivalent of the "nerd". Extreme examples of both behaviors are uncommon. Most young have a brush with both sides of the coin. At the age of 9 standard years an Ane has reached full growth, and is sexually mature. Ane females are fertile only once a year (Savanna year 3.2 Earth years). This cycle will adjust itself to a certain extent depending on the local conditions. Males, as with most mammalian males, are ready any old time. While fertility is limited, Ane are sexually capable at any time, and enjoy sensual pleasures. The newly capable adults will take advantage of the situation. Extrovert Ane will seek knowledge outside the usual methods, either by attending the universities of other races or empirical knowledge. As this benefits the race at large these activities are supported. Ane can live up to 500 years of age. Adulthood is a long afternoon of conversation, debate, friends, and family. Death when it comes in a natural manner is usually quiet, and without pain. Life partners will typically die within a day of each other unless a larger bond group exists to support them. Ane contend that the dead are not lost to them, but the greater All contains every Ane that lives, or has ever lived. Death is not feared, but seen as a natural end to a life that is full. Ane do not care for the dead body, as this is the least part of the person. In a normal environment the dead will be left where they fall to be handed by the elements. While the Ane take no notice of the scavengers that come to feed on the dead they discourage large predators in the lion or hyena range as dangerous to the living. When in non-Ane cultures, Ane adopt the prevalent method of corpse disposal. Cremation is preferred as plots need not be bought for dead meat. The one exception to this lack of care for the dead is if someone takes an Ane for the proposes of killing it and eating it. Ane will react violently, very violently, and take the body back. However if the carnivore shows up at the morgue and asks nicely they can usually get a snack. Mating and Reproduction Ane are mammals. Ane females have a two horned uterus similar to that of Earth bovines. They are only fertile once every El Nanth year. That is 3.2 standard years. The female has a some control over this fertility cycle. She can delay the cycle, skip a year, or bring it on early depending on local conditions. She will want to give birth when local food supplies are at their greatest. As a result of this Ane living on the African plains will cycle every three years, in sync with the rains. Ane living on one of the El Nanth worlds will cycle every local year, at any old time. The rosette has a round orbit, no seasonal changes to speak of. This fertility cycle seems very slow, but consider they can live up to 500 years and never enter menopause. In the usual safe and sane world Ane need to be careful about their numbers. Like Humans, Ane females can desire, have, and enjoy sex whenever they wish. Female Ane are not slow to seek sexual fun. They know when they are fertile and can avoid accidental pregnancy. Ironically that fertile period is the time of the greatest sexual desire. Libido is rampant, the orgasms are better and longer. It is a deep need to get laid, and the certain knowledge that to do so is an almost certain pregnancy. Ane culture has provided some solutions to the fertile female's problem, but mostly it's clamp your tail and grit your teeth. Males are typical of mammal males and will have sex at the drop of a hat, or other object. The male sexual tract is separate from the unary tract. The penis is used only for sex. Aneilog boys have to sit and pee. The penis is an average of 24 inches long and most resembles that of Earth equines. The sheath structure is similar and they have a secondary erection, "zing" as the girls call it. The tip of the penis will expand to three times it's normal diameter right before ejaculation. This serves the dual purpose of opening the female's cervix to directly deposit the semen in the uterus, and it locks the partners together at the critical moment. Males have an "after prostrate" A sexual bladder to hold semen. In an adult Ane this will hold a quart. At two ounces a shot that is 12 go-rounds a session. Aneilogs have similar organs with a commensurately lower use rate and size. Still 12 orgasms before they wear out. To Ane a good physical session is about three hours. Anything under that is a "quicky". Ane see sex as the toy you share with your friends. To a Vulcan is is a horror show in action. To a Human it is anything from a porn dream to an excuse to buy a space suit, and wear it all the time. Mental state There are three basic mental connection states for/during sex. Simple communication Thoughts and emotional state only. This is the normal Ane connection level. This is seen most often in the young that are just discovering sex. Rubbing the parts together is enough. 90% of the time the fertile girls that come mewing after sterile males are satisfied with this. **Just cool that awful need please, we need not get serious about it.** Sex link We feel each other's physical state. This is the serious about each other stage. The sex link is a brief dip into the realm of the mating bond. Temporary, brief, breakable. It lets each partner feel what the others are physically feeling as well. Yes, others. With Ane a simple pairing is rare. A sex link is not pursued with someone you met five minutes ago. Heck unless they are under 20 sex isn't usually pursued with someone you met five minutes ago. Yes the kids do mate to shame mad minks, casually, frequently. They grow out of it. A youth club on Oz would shock Mrs. Grundy dead. Aneilog youth clubs are flashing lights, soft music, and a lightly pounding beat. the air is thick with sex hormones and horny thoughts. They are a constant orgy. Couples will mate right in front of everyone. Vulcans would not go near them. Most humans do not do it twice. Aneilog youth clubs will tear at the Human expected sexual limits and norms, male or female. Those that let go are going to feel horribly violated in the morning, male or female. Mating weave We want each other for life. This is the sex link taken even a step further. Minds so mixed together they cannot be pulled apart without a great deal of damage to both. Partners are constantly aware of the mental and physical state of all partners. You can taste the radishes they are eating if you want to. Males can communicate with the late term fetus in utero. While casual sex is a toy, actual reproduction takes place only within the bondgroup. It is necessary for the proper raising of the child that it have at least two parents. The reality of linkshock also means that couples do not stay couples, but seek other weavemates to strengthen the bondgroup. "Finished" bondgroups, those not looking for further partners, will usually number between 6 and 10. More and less are uncommon but not unheard of. Children are typically born singly. Twins are uncommon. Triples are very rare and the chance that quads would come to term is so low that the females will usually reject the pregnancy as soon as she is aware of the circumstance rather than risk losing the children after quickening or worse, awakening. Ane biofeedback methods mean that the female is very aware of the state of her pregnancy. If there are genetic defects she will be aware of this before quickening, and will reject the pregnancy, also a biofeedback technique. Congenital defects can be cured in utero by Healers. There is no reason for any Ane child to be born with defects. What if an unmated female does get pregnant? Well it can happen. Both responsible partners get a stern taking to and an immediate adoption by a bondgroup for the sake of the baby. More often than not the young woman's mother will take over. It will be raised by the adoptive group even if the young woman nurses the child. They are never forced into bonding. That is a worse mistake than the pregnancy. Communication Ane are telepaths. Ane run from 85 to 95 on the Kraith scale. Ane culture largely takes place at the telepathic level. A herd of Ane calmly grazing on an otherwise featureless plain could be involved in a dozens of debates and conversations with other Ane star systems distant. Ane have a three chambered trachea. The vocal cords are located at the base of the trachea right above the bronchial branching. This arrangement allows the Ane to produce three tones at once. Their voice, although seldom heard is similar to a wood recorder in the contra-alto to baritone range. They have a limited syllabic vocabulary. Their spoken language is impossible for humanoids to reproduce, and likewise they cannot speak standard. With much practice, they manage some words. Telepathy renders vocal communication an art form. Fans call it a hauntingly beautiful art form. Culture As a mental society Ane do not produce much art that can be enjoyed by other people. While a few have tried painting with brushes held in their mouth, it is not a common practice. The most notable Ane art is singing. Those that are unaware of the Ane vocal apparatus take Ane singing for instrumental music. While most Ane can carry a tune, the vocal quality and skill can and does vary as much as it does in any species. Ane possess their own body of work and eagerly sing the instrumental music of other cultures. The main aspect of Ane culture is The All, the massed networked minds of the telepathic species. Little is understood about the All outside of the Ane for the reason you have to be Ane to get into the All. If you are in the All, you are Ane, simple equation. Ane consider anyone telepathic enough to mesh with the All, and willing to do so Ane, regardless of the person's born species. To date only Humans have manged to join the All. Ane speak of the All on several levels. First the All is the collected consciousness of the Ane race. It is the Racial memory shared by all Ane. The All is the body politic of the Ane, their physical existence. The All is the fast telepathic network that is the method by which the Ane practice their culture. Lastly the All is a physical place. The 11th dimension were the Ane dead gather. It is a place the Ane use to teleport from location to location. Ane are universally reluctant to speak about this last aspect even though physics describes it. It is always the same. **I could explain it to you, but it would drive you mad.** Ane do enjoy sport. Their body form precludes complex sports. Every physical sport they do enjoy involves running. Races over various terrain, pronging which only the young are light enough to do. And of course sex. Of note is the game of Bedlam. The game is a sort of four legged rugby played at sixty kilometers an hour. The field is between 2 kilometers and 5 kilometers long, and about a kilometer wide. Formal fields seldom exist and terrain factors will determine the size of the play area. A spiky rubber ball easily held in the mouth is carried from goal to goal. (In pre-technical times a stick was the common playing piece.) Rules are few. The game best resembles a running battle as the two sides (unmarked) tussle over the ball and try to run it off their end of the field. Aneilogs with hands and an upright posture have adopted many games common to Humans. Ane have no sense of physical modesty. They also have no sense of privacy. Life at large is lived in the open with your friends and family around you. You eat, eliminate, mate, give birth, and die within the herd. You get weathered on. This to Ane is normal. When they move among other races this does not change. Aneilogs in spite of their technical society have not altered these habits. While they have houses with doors. You will not find many locks or small rooms. Families will live in one large room. In a neighborhood children run freely from house to house. They eat were they land, and no one minds. No one knocks and doors are not locked. Ane culture is sensuous. The Ane idea of "personal space" starts about a millimeter under their skin. Even among Aneilogs who have hands the tongue is a common organ of greeting. Face licking, chin rubbing, it is Ane "handshaking". Likewise with the zero sense of body modesty or personal privacy. They like to get close to each other. While Americans like about three feet of personal space, Ane want to touch each other, even Ane that have never met before will get close. Much closer than most Humans will allow even close non sexual friends. What looks to a Human to be foreplay is really a "firm handshake". Ane must learn that other races expect privacy and do have a sense of modesty. Some never get the lesson and learn to stay home instead. The two extremes of contact with other cultures are the wild look and the civilized look. A wild Ane will take no effort with their appearance what so ever. Their mane is tangled. They are dusty, musty and "smell like an animal". In contrast the civilized Ane will be bathed and groomed. They may dye their horns and wear jewelry. Most Ane fall between the extremes. They like grooming, but cannot be bothered with fussing over things. Ane value knowledge. The only "rank" of any kind in Ane society is the Seela. Seela is an old Ansisi word of affirmation meaning roughly "I know this to my inner heart." A Seela is anyone that has learned a thing to mastery. They are the person you seek for knowledge of their field when you need the most the best and the latest. A Seela can only exist in the fields in which an Ane can practice. There will be no Ane Seela of piano playing no matter how much they know about music, and how pianos are constructed and played because without hands they cannot play the piano. An Ansisi member of the All can also become a Seela. Many of the physical arts are covered in this manner. The Seela "rank" is not granted by any board or body. It is a general acclimation among your fellows that you have achieved this level of knowledge. The Ane Magician In the VC-Prime Universe the Ane along every other sophant have the capacity for magic. Ane wizards can live for centuries. They have become masters of the subtle alteration and illusion. Mages that have leaned to get the most out of the least effort. The Ane specialize in the magics of deflection. They turn attention away, or conversely make something highly attractive. They make things appear to be something they are not. With magic these illusions are given a substance that telepathy alone cannot achieve. Nothing quite as dramatic as a Wiley Coyote painted tunnel, but they can make illusions you can stumble over and interact with. Their longest running illusion has been to hide themselves and Masikanietu in plain sight. They deal in subtle real alterations as well. Combined with their psionic healing they can in time rebuild your body into something else entirely. They willingly use this to correct birth defects and to restore shattered bodies. By itself the psionic healing can only replace what the body remembers having had. This is fine for a reconstruction, worthless for a cleft palate. While the most advanced healers have the ability of flesh shaping Ane can't do it. It requires at least a touch of telekinesis something they do not have. Hence the use of magic to overcome the limitation. They can even alter gender to the DNA level. A male can become a female capable of breeding, and vice a versa. Their capacity in this matter is not general knowledge. They could also make someone over into a different person, changing height, facial structure and so forth. To date they haven't had a reason to do it. Religion Ane do not regard themselves as religious. They have firm spiritual beliefs that no amount of missionary work (on the part of several religions of several races), logic, or reason has been able to shake. They have no priests or religious organizations. Beliefs are as follows; *The Ane are a designed and created species made by an entity called "Traveler" (no relation to the TNG Traveler). It is their created purpose to save the history and knowledge of the galaxy's cultures from ever being forgotten. *That all Ane live on in the Greater All. Death is only a step from one existence to another. No proof of this has ever been offered, but those that have chosen life as an Ane say that it is so. That you can feel presences of the dead within the All. * All sentient species, to their knowledge, have an immortal part. Non-physical races are simply those that have learned the power of that part, and accepted the loss of sensual living in favor of pure spiritual existence. Ane are tolerant of other races religious beliefs up to the point they are shoved into their fuzzy faces. At this point the Ane love of puncturing the pompous comes into play. Most of the time this does not happen. Ane do not have faith, they have certainty. They know when they were made, what for and who did it. They can talk to the dead anytime they please. Of some interest to the students of the metaphysical are the Ansisi, the Human members of the All. It is reported that they can see things within the All that the Ane themselves are unaware of. They report that aspects can be sensed at a distance, with a dark barrier between them and the far aspects. A barrier that cannot be crossed. Some have speculated that this might be the afterlife so many humans have dreamed about, feared, and sought. The Ansisi simply report what they have seen, and the Ane have no comment. Other religions are practiced by Outsiders as they see fit. The Ane make no accommodation or hindrance to the free exercise of any religion that stays with the two laws. Organization Peer to peer network. Most people will claim there IS no organization. While there is a "First Speaker of the All", they are the equivalent of a "network administrator" and have no authority as Humans would measure it. When Ane do organized for any reason is is on an ad hoc basis as the situation demands. Those of a similar bent will come together for what ever reason has drawn them together, accomplish what they seek to do and then part. No organization persists beyond the purpose for which it was made. The idea of empire building is foreign to their thought process. Government None. The Ane are a functional anarchy. With the structure of the All they can communicate across vast distances with the ease of taking to the person sitting next to you. The Ane talk everything over. Questions from the most trivial to the most important are tossed into the All and batted around. Ane do have two laws. "Be it harm none, do as you will" and "There is no such thing as an over reaction to force." All other polices and practices are based on these two laws, and a handful of basic principles. The most basic principle is: "He that shouts first, or turns to other forms of violence admits defeat in the battlefield of ideas." As a result of this Ane will turn back flips to avoid "shouting". The most heated debates are low key affairs with all parties avoiding the label of a shouter. This will turn the remainder of the discussion against you. Therilan as suggested what to her is know as Glade Outsider Government. The Two Laws are given, and outsdiers get to decide how they would act within the Two Laws. They could make no other laws. Historically no one has asked the Ane if they could move in, and what if anything they could do once they did. With the urging of the Ansisi it was decided that that era was over. Ane worlds would be ruled by Ane. If by some stroke of idiot genius you do manage to offend Ane law, and live to be arrested, there is a limited number of responses that will be taken. A crime against a member of the All is swiftly punished. The finding of fact is usually done and over before the criminal is brought to heel. In a telepathic society what was done and who did it gets around quickly. A consensus is reached often even before the crime is over. Guilt or innocence is determined by the community of the wronged individual. If a member of the All they decide. If the wronged is an Outsider every effort is made to get that person the same level of swift justice. A jury of Outsiders will decide. A Seela of Law will preside as judge. *Fines; For civil cases and a few criminal cases where bodily harm was not inflicted, fines are imposed. The amount depending on the amount of financial injury received and the desire to return damage in like manner. Based on what you have, not a fixed fee. Fines are paid to the injured party, not collected by the government. *The Walk; For cases of bodily harm less than death, "the walk" is imposed. The offender is dropped some distance, dependent on the amount of harm, given minimal supplies, and pointed the direction of Crystal City. This is always done on Glade. They then have the choice of life as a primitive hermit in an environment trying to kill them, or walking back to civilization. *Death; Murder someone and you get the maximum penalty, anonymous death. You are taken out somewhere in the system, no one is even told the planet you will die on, and kicked to death by Ane. Your body is left to the scavengers and the elements. No other record of you will be made. Ane criminals are a different matter. Ane don't like to talk about it, but yes, they do get the occasional bad apple. Ane criminals come primary in two types. The scary and the annoying. The scary are dealt with by the All directly. These are Ane that cast aside the ethics of their kind and take full advantage of the telepathic gifts they possess. The All will hunt these beings down and stop them. The usual punishment is shunning. Said Ane is confined to one of their worlds and ignored. They cannot get access to the Express and cannot get anyone to talk to them. The worse of this lot are burned out. Their telepathic abilities are destroyed by the community. After this they are usually turned out from the Ane worlds to make their way as best they can. Such creatures do not usually live long. The annoying type are those Ane that cannot, or will not, learn Outsider manners and also will not stay home. They stick their noses in where they are not wanted and do not take no for an answer. The method for dealing with these is to not deal with them. Ane that offend Outsiders and Outsider law will suffer the consequences of their acts. If annoying the Zak means the Zak eats you, after proper warning that further annoyance will be met with sharp teeth, the other Ane will stand around and watch you get eaten. No over reaction to force remember? This applies to them as well. There is one further example of the Ane bad actor. Those that develop a mine bump. Some Ane have become materialistic. They crave stuff and surround themselves with things and new experiences. As long as this aberrant behavior does not harm someone else, and it is self supporting they are left be. If this isn't the case the laws as they exist will deal with it, either Ane or Outsider as the case may be. Languages The Ane Confederation has no official language. The Ane themselves are telepaths and you need but open your mouth in any language and they understand you. What ever Outsiders live among them will speak what ever language they arrived with. The Ansisi speak Swahili some still understand the ancient tribal tongue of the Ansisi. Of note is Coventry. The first contact that Coventry had outside of itself, after the Rishans, was the Shardin Empire. As the Shardin needed signage, the Aneilogs created this using the Shardin script. While the Kligese'chee wiped out the Shardin their script has remained in use on Coventry. Category:Groups Category:Aliens Category:Psionics